


Breakage

by ScaryScarecrows



Series: Gaslights [11]
Category: Batman: Gotham by Gaslight (2018)
Genre: Gen, Potentially Bad Decisions, aftermath of death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-01
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-05-16 21:56:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14819612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ScaryScarecrows/pseuds/ScaryScarecrows
Summary: It’s two weeks after Jason’s…Jason’s funeral…that Dick comes to a decision.





	Breakage

It’s two weeks after Jason’s…Jason’s funeral…that Dick comes to a decision.

They can’t stay here.

Look. He will acknowledge that the whole ‘dressing up and going out to pick fights with crazy criminals’ is not normal for any family. But when that family consists of a shut-in, an actress, a butler-mom, and three (two, just two, now) street urchins, exceptions are going to be made.

And he’s willing to acknowledge that if something had happened…at night…then, well, they all know what they’re in for. They put on the masks every night knowing that someone could get a lucky shot.

But this wasn’t at night. This was in the goddamn daytime, this had, as far as they know, nothing to do with the Bat or the Birds or any of that. This was the Joker (and Dick _will_ find the bastard, never mind what Bruce says) thinking this would be hilarious, thinking this would shake things up.

And they’d. They’d seen him. Dick not so much, he’s not at school every day now, just a few classes left. But Tim, a-and Jay, they’d. They’d seen him. Just glimpses, lost in the crowd too quickly to do anything.

They had ample warning. Warning to homeschool, or leave the city, or _something_ , but no.

And now look at where they are.

Bruce promised. When he took them in, Dick cornered him and made him swear on his cowl that he would keep them safer than they’d be on the streets. And yeah, Dick had believed him, been stupid and desperate enough to believe him, but he’d promised.

_I just wanted someone else to take responsibility, just once._

That’ll teach him. If they’d stayed, yeah, maybe things would’ve gone south, but they would’ve probably integrated into Penguin’s organization sooner rather than later, or at least been hired as dockhands an’ outta the public eye. Outta _His_ yellow eyes, anyway.

He looks at Tim, pale and tired and shell-shocked, still, and fights back the memory of him thrashing in his arms and insisting that Jason couldn’t be dead because they found him and that’s how these things _worked._

“Dickie?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we doing the right thing?”

He’s going to miss Alfred. Alfred, who’s been so kind to them even when they’ve been, admittedly, kinda awful, and who’s always got some sorta baked good and who taught Tim to play the piano. Let Dick take a breather from mediating the arguments. Read to Jay when he was sick in bed.

He’s really, really gonna miss Alfred.

“Bruce is a liability, Tim,” he says quietly, pulling his warmest coat out of the closet. “We were better out of the spotlight without him.”

Tim’s silent for a few more minutes, hands folded in his lap, before whispering, “I know.”

Upstairs, there’s shouting-Bruce and Selina have been at each other’s throats since…since. It’s always things like _look at me when I talk to you_ and _how dare you use that tone with me_ and, once, long after midnight, _you’re not the only one who lost a child, so stop acting like you are._

He’ll miss Selina, too, miss the way she used to wink and cover for them when they snuck out to have a smoke on the roof. Or, once, when Dick was trying to teach Tim how to flip and…he doesn’t know how, exactly, but Tim got trapped on the chandelier. Selina had gotten him down and promised not to tell Bruce. (Like Bruce didn’t know anyway, probably, but still.)

He doesn’t know if he’ll miss Bruce. Selina didn’t promise. Alfred didn’t promise. He didn’t ask them to. He thought-God, he was naive and foolish!-he thought a promise from the Bat would be enough.

_Jay-bird, I’m so sorry._

He’s not relying on that promise, not anymore. He’s learned his lesson, paid the price, and he’s not losing the one sibling he’s got left.

Tim slides off the bed and sets the envelope on the pillow. Now’s as good a time as any-if Dick’s gonna be honest, he’s not sure he can follow through if he has to face Alfred, and today’s Alfred’s day off.

The shouting upstairs grows louder, and he throws an arm around Tim’s shoulders, pulls him close, and heads for the back door. Batman coped just fine without them before, he’ll cope now. And if he’s not going to hunt Joker down…it’s not like they don’t have some old contacts of their own.

There’s only so many places, after all, that a clown can hide. Even in a city like Gotham, somebody’ll have seen him.

THE END


End file.
